


fighting moonlight with a bloody kiss

by alexanderlightweight



Series: Words of October 2019 [18]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dubious Morality, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Minor Injuries, Soft Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 01:27:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20986535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexanderlightweight/pseuds/alexanderlightweight
Summary: sometimes you fight because it's the right thing to dosometimes you fight because it's the only thing you knowand sometimes you have to surrender to fight for what you love.





	fighting moonlight with a bloody kiss

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the flufftober fill: wet!!
> 
> Yes I am out of order and I am very much not on track. However I've given myself the goal of one fic a day and if I do that, I'll be happy.

Alec fought viciously, with a brutal intensity that had Magnus’ eyes narrow in want and his blood thrum with need.

The distance between them seemed too great like this, with Magnus on the stands and Alec in the ring with only his runes and body as weapons. Most of his opponents laughed a bit when they joined him but it was the vampires that Magnus hated to watch. Vampires who hissed tauntingly and licked their lips as if already tasting angelic blood-

_ -while Magnus stayed on the sidelines and watched and waited and wanted. _

“You did well,” Magnus praised at the end and reached out to press cool, blue tipped fingers to the purple bruise blossoming on Alec’s ribs. It was the two of them, alone in one of the empty rooms used as a makeshift locker and he’d sealed the doors immediately behind him.

“Barely,” Alec admitted, “they almost had me. I got tired, tried to end it too soon. I should have worn them down more.”

“But you won,” Magus reminded him and trailed his fingers up Alec’s chest and then curled them around his neck, “you’re alive and fairly un-injured, this time.” 

It was a threat as much as a promise, a reminder that while Alec felt he had something to prove, Magnus knew differently. 

“It’s just a little while longer,” Alec promised, tone subdued and lowering his eyes in a way that wasn’t like him, “I just-”

“Once more,” Magnus said, “I’ll let you do this to yourself once more and then it’s over. I should have shut this place down weeks ago, you’re the only reason I didn’t, Alexander. I’m regretting listening to you and you know how I feel about regrets.”

Alec sighed in resignation and somehow managed to look at Magnus entreatingly through his lashes, “take me home tonight?”

“Darling, I’d take you home every night, you know that.” Magnus said and he used the hand on Alec’s neck to pull him down gently for a sweet, tender kiss that stained his tongue with the taste of copper. “You’re the one who stubbornly insists otherwise.”

Alec mumbled something against Magnus’ cheek, some protest or excuse but that didn’t matter. If Alec was finally at the point where he was going to ask for help, or at the very least allow Magnus to give what he’d been trying to from the beginning, then Magnus wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” he offered and urged Alec to follow him. Thrilled when instead of just walking behind him, Alec reached out to tangle their fingers and walked _ with _ him instead. 

The portal Magnus opened was one that went directly to his loft, bypassing the plethora of security measures he normally took with any guest. With Alec though, well Magnus had been letting Alec into far more vulnerable places than just his home and base of operations. 

Alec slumped the moment he was through the portal, sagging against Magnus and his fingers threatening to fall from his grasp. Magnus tightened his hold, pulling Alec’s hand up to get his attention with a kiss to his bruised and tender knuckles, “how about a bath?” He offered, “I have a rather luxurious elixir I make myself, guaranteed to work wonders on sore muscles.” 

Alec just nodded, offering silence instead of a witty quip or even a saltily raised brow. It made Magnus’ chest tighten and he snapped his fingers, calling to the tub a hot, steaming bath and summoning the potion. 

“Don’t worry about your clothes, Alexander. I’ll take care of them.” 

Trust Alec to try and tidy-up his clothes when he could barely stand. Magnus was a tad vicious with his magick, probably accidentally incinerating the bundle and then he snapped his fingers again, magicking away the grime on Alec so that it wouldn’t muck up the bath.

“Going to join me?” Alec asked entreatingly, reached out a hand to him and oh, Magnus was ever so tempted.

“Later, Alexander.” He promised and bent to press a kiss to his brow, infusing his lips with warm, subtle magick that had Alec’s eyes fluttering as he relaxed further in the tub. “I have something to check on and I’ll be back before the waters cool, I promise.”

Magnus decidedly left out the fact that his bathwater never got cool, one of the many useful beauties of magick and sigils. 

It took the better part of an hour for Magnus to finish. Magick and fire flashed through his apothecary and office and his fingers felt almost stiff from how many fire messages and texts he had written. Finally done, he set his phone on silent and placed up a secondary ward to redirect all fire-messages. If it was an emergency, well then, there were other ways to reach him if one thought it worth the price.

That tended to, he made his way to the living room where he lingered, looking through the balcony doors with a critical eye. It had only been six months since the Division. Downworlders had been reminded of the predators that lingered and bred in the shadows and his services had been more in demand for protections and wards than ever. 

Alicante was closed and Alec, his delightful, beautiful Alexander, was trapped on the other side of a great divide. Locked away from Idris and cut off from his family to roam the streets of New York with no friends or allies. Magnus knew that when he didn’t sleep here, he slept at what remained of the New York Institute and that Alec still considered himself it’s protector. Magnus had warded what he could of it, what hadn’t been torn apart by angelic blades and what adamas didn’t reject his magick. Still, it was a place of tragedy and more a tomb to memories than a place to live, it was only Alec’s stubbornness and self-recrimination that had him returning there now.

Magnus let the message he’d been holding slip from his fingers and fade into ash. After all, contact with anyone from Idris, the Citadel or the Silent City was not only forbidden but impossible. The passages had been sealed and wards had been put in place while Idris fought itself in a bloody, capricious civil war. There was no way for anything to slip through and no reason for him to suggest otherwise, not when it kept Alec safe and secure, with Magnus.

“You’re here,” Alec said with a smile when Magnus finally entered the bathroom and it soothed Magnus to see him unbruised and hale, reclining in the silver sheen of an elixir dosed bath. It glinted off his skin like moonlight and Magnus dipped his fingers in, creating little ripples that danced and swirled against Alec's skin.

“I said I would be and the water is still hot.” Magnus reminded him and it earned him a reproachful, tired look.

“You cheated.” 

“Oh did I?” Magnus asked, delighted to have some of Alec’s energy and snark back, “do tell? Where is your evidence, darling?” That got him a grumpy frown and a furrow of Alec’s brow as he tried to think of one, “I’m sorry,” Magnus said finally with a little laugh, “here scoot forward.” Alec did as asked and Magnus slipped in behind him, shivering at the feel of hot, relaxing water around him and wet, languid Alexander against him. 

Alec’s hair was damp and full of suds, as thought he had started to wash it and then forgotten to finish. Magnus poured some of the amber shampoo over his hand and carefully rubbed in it, certain that if Alec could, he’d be purring by now.

“When am I going to convince you to move in with me?” Magnus asked softly and Alec made a petulant, tired grumble against him.

“I don’t want to move in with you just to leave you,” Alec said softly and Magnus gritted his teeth. “The vampires are sure there’s a breach somewhere and no matter how many fights I win, nobody has any useful information, but there is still information out there.”

“And then what? You’re _one_ soldier Alec, you’d risk getting trapped in a dimensional rift for nothing? All you’re doing is hurting yourself,” Magnus said and when Alec said nothing he clenched his eyes shut, feeling the burning of his glamour as his magick fought his control. "You’re hurting me.” He admitted, a gentle plea that he’d hoped not to have to use and Alec made a mournful, small noise, water sloshing over the tub as he twisted, finally managing to straddle Magnus and wet, warm hands were cupping his cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Magnus please look at me.” Magnus opened his eyes, blinking slowly, trustingly as he let the glamour drop and Alec’s gaze met his, “I’m sorry,” Alec whispered, “I”ll stop. I promise, I know it’s not helping me or anyone and that they’d hate it, if they knew. I just, I didn’t want to give up.”

“You’re not,” Magnus promised, “Alexander you’re not giving up. You’re staying alive and you’re doing your best to protect New York, no one could think you’re doing anything less than everything you can. You already risk your life hunting on your own, you don’t need to add to it by fighting for information that won’t help you.” 

“I’m sorry,” Alec said again and pressed his brow against Magnus’ and Magnus felt the cool balm of relief fill him, settling right next to the growing satisfaction of knowing that he’d made the right choice. 

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: autocorrect was being a bitch so it kept changing breach to ‘beach’ and I lost a good 15 minutes giggling over the fact that ‘the vampires are sure there is a beach somewhere’. 
> 
> Well Alec, it’s not like they can verify it or they’d be dust! 
> 
> this was also supposed to be an excuse to write fighter!alec doing cage fights and rich benefactor Magnus but that will have to be saved for a different time because it got emotional and soft. 
> 
> I'm on tumblr as [alexanderlightweight](https://alexanderlightweight.tumblr.com)


End file.
